Trump Wants Macron to Be Perfect—and to Know Who’s Boss

The latest installment of Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron’s alpha-male one-upmanship played out at the White House Tuesday during a state visit by the French leader.

As the two presidents spoke to cameras in the Oval Office, Trump, 71, flicked at 40-year-old Macron’s shoulder.

“I’ll get that little piece of dandruff off,” he said. “We have to make him perfect -- he is perfect.”

Trump and Macron have had a muscular relationship since their first meeting at a NATO summit last year, when the French head of state gripped his counterpart’s hand so hard he couldn’t pull it away, even though he tried.

Both men have consistently talked up their special relationship. But they also share a particular rivalry.